MINNEAPOLIS, Minn., November 8, 2010 –Four award‐winning landscape and urban design teams from as far afield asBoston, New York City, Berkeley and Beijing will meet in the middle when they compete in the Minneapolis RiverfrontDesign Competition (MR|DC). The teams – Ken Smith Workshop|New York City, Stoss Landscape Urbanism|Boston, TomLeader Studio|Berkeley, and Turenscape|Beijing – were short‐listed from a pool of 55 responses to the MR|DC Requestfor Qualifications, which included many of the world’s leading urban and landscape design firms.MR|DC, the largest design competition in Minneapolis history, will produce a 21st‐century parks design for 220 acres ofparkland and surrounding neighborhoods and business districts along both sides of the 5.4‐mile stretch of the MississippiRiver from the Stone Arch Bridge in the historic downtown Mill District to the city’s northern limits. The competition is cosponsoredby the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board and the Minneapolis Parks Foundation, with Creative Partners,the University of Minnesota College of Design and the Walker Art Center.

“The historic, cultural and spiritual significance of the Mississippi River to Minneapolis and the world, coupled with theopportunity to bring innovation and creativity to the project, drew interest from award‐winning teams from fivecontinents and 14 countries. The four teams we short‐listed comprise innovative and inspirational people who will workvery hard to create great concepts for the Minneapolis riverfront,” says Bill Morrish, MR|DC jury member, and Dean ofthe School of Constructed Environments and Associate Dean, Parsons The New School of Design in New York City.The teams’ collective work includes award‐winning riverfront and industrial reclamation park projects, in places such asShanghai, Memphis, Toronto, New York City, Dubai, Milwaukee and London.MR|DC challenges the design teams to create an over‐arching vision for the Upper Riverfront that builds on the ParkBoard’s award‐winning 2000 master plan and addresses current demands as well as future needs. The winning design willbe a comprehensive, integrated vision for the Upper Riverfront that establishes parks as the engine for economicdevelopment, transforms the river into a connector rather than a barrier between east and west banks, and refocusesMinneapolis toward what is one of the three great rivers of the world.

“Today, a growing and diversifying residential and business population, as well as economic and environmental pressures,require new‐century parks infrastructure and programming,” says Cecily Hines, President of the Minneapolis ParksFoundation, a co‐sponsor of MR|DC and creator of the “Next Generation of Parks” initiative, of which MR|DC is the firstdemonstration project. “The Minneapolis Riverfront Design Competition will demonstrate how great design, based oninnovative thinking and technology, community input, and fiscal and environmental responsibility, can produce a visionfor the Upper Riverfront that meets the demands of current, and future, generations.”Each team will be awarded $30,000 for fees, travel and materials to complete its design, which are due January 21. Theteams will visit Minneapolis twice: first for a three day exploratory visit beginning on November 29, and again in the newyear to present their designs to the MR|DC jury and to the public on January 27.

The public will be invited to respond to a “Designer Ask” online and printed survey following the first team visit, and at acommunity meeting at 7:00 PM on December 7 at the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board headquarters. The WalkerArt Center will host a video reel of the submitted designs for two weeks, beginning January 27.For more information about MR|DC, included studio and project summaries and work samples from the competingteams, please visit our website at http://www.minneapolisriverfrontdesigncompetition.com.

About the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board

With 182 park properties totaling nearly 6,732 acres of land and water, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board provides places andrecreation opportunities for all people to gather, celebrate, contemplate, and engage in activities that promote health, well‐eing,community, and the environment. Each year, approximately 18 million visits are made to the nationally acclaimed Minneapolis parksystem. Its urban forests, natural areas and waters endure and captivate. Its Grand Rounds National Scenic Byway, neighborhoodparks, recreation centers and diversified programming have made the Minneapolis park system an important component of whatmakes Minneapolis a great place to live, play and work. To learn more about the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, visitwww.minneapolisparks.org.

About the Minneapolis Parks Foundation

Minneapolis Parks Foundation is an independent philanthropic nonprofit helping to shape the next generation of parks and greenspaces in Minneapolis, with the goal of ensuring that our park system will be as powerful an amenity in the future as it has been in thepast. Building on the visionary approach of our park system's founders over a century ago, the Foundation seeks to foster, throughpartnerships and collaborations with governmental entities, businesses, and other nonprofits, a systemic and sustainable approach toparks planning and design which addresses the needs and preferences of our changing world.